CRANBURY Alfred N. Meiss, 90, died Sept. 30 at Haven Hospice in Edison, of congestive heart failure.
Born in Philadelphia, he grew up in Laurel Springs, and spent the past 57 years in Cranbury.
In the early 1960s, he was active in local environmental planning and was instrumental in establishing Cranbury’s first planning board, which he chaired for about eight years. He also was active in the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association.
He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in soil chemistry and agriculture from Rutgers University.
After serving in the Navy from 1944 to 1946, he completed a doctorate in plant science at Yale University in 1950. He worked as a biochemist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven from 1948 to 1952.
From 1952 to 1957 he was an associate professor at Rutgers University College of Agriculture. From 1957 to 1967, he was science advisor at Ted Bates & Company in New York city. From 1968 to1975, he moved from advertising to food and agricultural research projects in international development for Sidney M. Cantor Associates, Haverford, Pa..
Predeceased by wife Edith, son Stephen A. and daughter Elizabeth Jean Meiss, he is survived by daughter Alison Edith Meiss of Washington, D.C.; granddaughters Angela M. Henderson of Grover Beach, Calif., and Stephanie M. Webb of Pottsville, Pa.; nephews Richard A. Meiss of Speedway, Ind., Martin M. Meiss of Syracuse, N.Y.; niece Harriette Regan of Vancouver, B.C.; great- grandchildren Sage and Darcy Henderson of California and Gavin and Molly Webb of Pennsylvania.
A memorial service will be held at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 2 at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, One-Mile Road Extension, East Windsor. Burial in the church memorial garden will immediately follow the service.
Memorial contributions may be made to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Haven Hospice of Edison, or the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, 31 Titus Mill Road, Pennington, NJ 08534.

